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Act fast! Rare Business Class award availability on direct American Airlines Sydney to Los Angeles service in second half of year

GUIDE: Using Points

DIFFICULTY: Intermediate

TIME TO READ: 2 minutes

POSTED: January 20, 2017

UPDATED: April 23, 2017

LOYALTY PROGRAMS: American Airlines AAdvantage

It is generally very difficult to find award space in premium cabins between Australia and the US, but right now there are at least two Business Class seats on American Airlines’ Sydney to Los Angeles service for a smattering of dates in the second half of the year, mainly in October and early November, with some in July and August.

We haven’t found any availability in the reverse direction, i.e. Los Angeles to Sydney. These should be bookable using Qantas Points at the same rate as if you were redeeming for Qantas flights – so 96,000 Qantas Points, plus (very low) taxes, one way – but we aren’t seeing them come up on Qantas.com.

If you have access to AAdvantage miles, which we’ve written a program introduction to here, an 80,000-point redemption is great value. You can read about buying AAdvantage miles here.

As AAdvantage’s award chart is region-based, you can add on a Qantas domestic flight for free if you are in a city other than Sydney.

As it does not seem that this award space is showing up on the Qantas website, it may mean that Qantas Points might not be able to be used to book an award on this flight – you’d need to call Qantas to confirm and if you have success, please report back in the comments below.

Here’s what we found for August, searching for the 80K figure:

but you’re more likely to find a day in October:

Click through on your preferred day and the nonstop flight should show like this:

AA operates a new Boeing 777-300ER on this flight, with direct aisle access for all Business Class passengers in a 1-2-1 configuration, pyjamas and mattress pads. It’s actually better than what Qantas offers on the same route, and you can read more about it here.

Summing up

This is a rare opportunity for grabbing a seat on a direct Australia-US flight, so act quick if you have the required miles in your AAdvantage account!

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Who wrote this
article?

Matt is a Content Producer for Point Hacks, joining the team in 2016. Originally from Sydney, he won the green card lottery and now bases himself in the US for half the year and abroad for the other half. His favourite destinations so far have been Japan, Iran, Colombia, Israel and South Africa, and his top flight experiences in Cathay Pacific First, SWISS Business and Singapore Airlines Economy Class.

As above: “As it does not seem that this award space is showing up on the Qantas website, it may mean that Qantas Points might not be able to be used to book an award on this flight – you’d need to call Qantas to confirm.”